Risotto

Rice, if possible of the Superfino Arborio or Vialone Nano varieties (both are grown in Northern Italy): if you cannot find them, substitute with a medium grained rice, not an oriental rice like Basmati or Jasmine, because you want some starch to release. Consider about 70 grams per person.

Butter. No substitute. Risotto was invented in Northern Italy, and the traditional cooking fat there are butter and lard. Olive oil arrived much later.

Onions, about a quart onion per person. Not a lot, really.

Stock, vegetable or meat, although meat-derived broth is tastier.

pinch of salt, pepper to taste ...

Stage 1: toasting

Start by putting a pot with the stock on the fire. It has to be boiling or very near boiling for the whole time. When this is somewhat hot, start a second pot with the butter (don't be stingy there) and the very finely chopped onions.

If this is sausage risotto, add the chopped sausages now.

The onions have to become transparent, not brown. When they are at this stage, throw the rice in and toast it well,

If your risotto implies some sturdy veg, like carrots or cabbage or potatoes, now is the moment to add them.

Stir the rice until it becomes clearer, almost transparent in fact (at the beginning it is whitish). This should take about four minutes, don't forget to mix it continuously, otherwise the grains on the bottom will burn and you will have to dump the whole mess in the garbage can.

At this point, you can also throw in a quarter glass per person of white wine. Unless you are doing risotto a la embriaga, in which case it would be red wine. Stir until all the wine has been absorbed.

Stage 2: the wave

At this point, add enough boiling broth to cover the rice and no more. Stir with a wooden spoon, and enter this loop:

Check whether the risotto is fluid but not watery: there should not be a layer of liquid on the surface, yet the risotto should behave like a very heavy fluid, that's to say "make waves" when stirred.

If it is too dry, add a ladleful of broth, and mix.

wait one minute

The one minute bit is not exaggerated: the bastardwill burn unless watched.

If your risotto implies delicate stuff, like asparagus or leeks or shrimp, you add it somewhere in here, depending on its cooking time.

After about twenty minutes, start tasting the rice. When it is almost done, turn off the gas (you are not doing this on an electric range, are you ?), add extra butter, mix, cover, wait one minute and eat.

Stage 3: the eating

Usually served with grated Parmigiano, unless it is a seafood risotto. Only people from Parma put Parmigiano on seafood risotto, and the people from Genova berate us for that.

Must be eaten hot: when cold it sucks horribly, and does not take very well to reheating.

Within this meta method, you are free to invent and elaborate, and still call this risotto.

note: in Milan style risotto, (Risotto alla milanese) saffron is mixed with some broth and added during cooking.

Leftover risotto can be eaten saltato (which
does not mean "salted").
What you do is heat some butter in a saute pan,
add the risotto when the butter is hot, and mash the rice
with a fork. Cook it three minutes on each side.

Heat your skillet or pan to a very high temperature, utterly dry. When you feel your pan is as hot as it's likely to get, plunge your entire stock of rice into the pan! You'll notice a dramatic effect, much like popcorn, with grains hopping all over the shop, including some who are able to escape the pan (leave those ones, they're on a different path).After 60 seconds of toasting, drop in a quarter-cup of your stock. You'll be rewarded by a furious bubbling and spitting -- this is good! Stir like your life depended on it -- what we're trying to achieve is uniform coverage of liquid on rice...After a minute, plunge in a splash of wine -- you'll notice a similar bubbling... Let the risotto recover from their shock at this point. They've entered a new state of being, let them settle...Next, when your risotto are really thirsty and begging for liquid, splash in another small measure of stock or wine (trust your intuition at this early stage -- you and your risotto have entered a holy pact);Keep your risotto thirsty (this is the whole secret of risotto), and give them a little drink of wine or stock when they're just about expired from thirst;In parallel, heat a smaller pan with a little oil (your favourite is fine -- although this recipe uses macadamia oil) -- and fry your bacon and onions to a nice 3/4 done consistency; Your two pans are now ready for merging: immediately after a dousing of liquid, sling your bacon and onions into the risotto pan, and stir furiously, add more stock!Stir, stir, stir. Every grain is sacred, and wishes to please you. Add a smidge of liquid when you have to, until the liquid is all gone...What you're looking for is a grain consistency like the classical Italian al dente ("to the tooth", that is, pliant but firm at it's middle). When you sense you are five minutes from al dente, toss in your remaining ingredients and stir, stir, stir! You'll find the butter and cheese to act as lubricants for the other delicious ingredients...Stir some more -- this is risotto, dammit, and the secret is in the stirring fnordWhen you are al dente (no more than five minutes), remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture settle. It might look like something Dai Un coughed up, but trust me, this is a magnificent risotto!Serve as you will, although take the time to tell your fellow diners that this is risotto alla sensei

Enjoy. Bon appetit.

Important footnote:

there will be leftovers. KEEP THEM! There is nothing quite like leftover risotto, refried in a wok (as "patties") the next day. Serve with sourdough and cultured butter.

Quite different when compared to their previous album - more instrumentals, harder songs and edgier lyrics. I don't like it as much as Six wheels on my wagon, which isn't to say that it's a bad album, but it loses energy too quickly. Moving one of the first two tracks down into the middle of the album probably would have fixed this somewhat.

The opener, and the other famous song from the album. Starts off with thumping bass beats and a woman moaning, before upping the tempo and bringing the rest of the instruments into play. The lyrics make absolutely no sense, except in an Underworldstreamofconciousness sort of way. This is another one of those "better with vocoders" songs.

The song that really got Fluke noticed by the masses. Played continuously pretty much everywhere during 1996, made it onto a couple of soundtracks and into at least one game. Hard, fast, edgy techno, danceable, and with great lyrics about a cute, megalomanical girl just trying to take over the world and have some fun doing it. The video clip mixes the WipEout 2097 intro movie, in-game footage, some quick shots of Rachel Stewart dressed up as Arial Tetsuo, and a short anime sequence involving a lot of blood. I'm sure the only reason they picked 2097 was because it had just been released - Arial Tetsuo is from the first WipEout game.

Fluke apparently got into some trouble playing this live on BBCRadio 1 by singing the above lyrics for 24 straight bars.

Kitten moon

Oooh, pseudo-trance! And dreamy, heavy pseudo-trance at that. Even though it's not one of the more famous songs on the album, it probably should be. Gets fast towards the middle of the track, probably breaking the "trance" thing, but I'm not all that great with genres anyway.

Similar to Setback, but without the vocals and more bouncy. Not too much to say about this one, really.

Absurd (reeferendrum)5

Is it just me, or are Fluke the only ones who're any damn good at remixing their own tracks? Don't give me any of that "Born Slippy vs. Born Slippy.NUXX" crap - this track sounds absolutely nothing like the original. It's mostly heavy drum beats with a soaring, twinkly piano and harp line.

Squirt6"quick, quiet, confident. comfortable, permanent. undisputed, every tense. not a trace of what went left."

Yet another breakbeat number with a swelling synth-line. The lyrics really make this one stand out; they're not like anything else on the album, and Jon Fugler really doesn't sound like himself. Nice track, though, and the single has some excellent remixes.

Goodnight lover

Ambience. Bells. Guitar. Progressive backbeat. Wind off the bells and up the guitar and backbeat. Add in a synth-violin noise until it sounds like something from a James Bond movie. Not a bad closer, and the lack of lyrics winds down nicely from the previous track.

This is a delicious side dish that will impress your dinner guest(s). It takes a bit of work but everyone will be asking for the recipe. You can serve this under grilledbonelessskinlesschicken breasts. This is my recipe for Mushroom and SpinachRisotto. I just made a batch the day I'm posting the recipe so I figured I should add it here for you to enjoy.

The Ingredients:

6 cups chicken or vegetable broth

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 lb fresh portobello mushrooms

1 lb fresh white mushrooms

2 shallots

1.5 cups arborio rice

1/2 cup dry white wine

12 leaves of fresh spinach

4 tbsp butter

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, fresh grated is best

Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

The Magic:

Warm 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large saucepan or a wok over medium-high burner.

Slice all mushrooms thin and put all of the mushrooms in and stir constantly, cooking until all are soft. Can take three to four minutes. Put into a large bowl with any liquids.

Dice the shallots and add them and the other two tbsp of olive oil to the wok or saucepan. Cook one minute, moving them constantly.

Add the rice and stir until all the grains have a coating of oil, cooking for two minutes until the rice is a light golden color.

Add the wine to the rice, stirring constantly until absorbed by the rice.

Add in 1/2 cup of broth, continuing to stir until absorbed. Do not let the rice dry out.

Continue to add in 1/2 cup and stirring as above until all of the broth has been added and the rice is cooked and al dente.

Remove from heat, stir in the mushrooms with juice, butter, and Parmesan.

Tear or chop the spinach leaves into small pieces and add to the pan, stirring until coated.

Add salt and pepper to taste, transfer to serving dish. Serve hot.

This takes a lot of work, especially the constant stirring, but it will impress your family or guests. As noted in an above node it is best eaten fresh, but if you have any leftovers, you can stir-fry them with some diced chicken or thinly sliced pork and slivered carrots in olive oil.